A GIRL UNKNOWN by Zou Jing is in production
Development & Production News May 2025
In development / pre-production
Polish Film Institute
The Polish Film Institute (PFI) has announced support for 13 feature-film projects. Among them:
- ALL THE BOYS ARE HERE by Goran Stolevski, producer: EAVE graduate Jan Naszewski
- ARTEFACTS by Jan Jakub Kolski, producer: EAVE graduate Violetta Kaminska
- HER WILL BE DONE by Julia Kowalski, producer: EAVE graduate Estelle Robin You
- TWO SOULS by Lukasz Ronduda, producer: EAVE graduate Agnieszka Wasiak
National Film Centre of Latvia
The National Film Centre of Latvia has announced its grants:
- SHE-DEVIL by Davis Simanis, producers: EAVE graduates Gints Grube, Inese Boka-Grube, Edina Gedina-Ducena
- ELINA GARANCA – THE SECRET OF LIFE by Signe Birkova, producers: EAVE graduates Gints Grube, Inese Boka-Grube, Edina Gedina-Ducena
- SUNSHINE FOR EVERYONE by Anete Melece, producer: EAVE FFF graduate Roberts Vinovskis
Wallimage
The Belgian regional investment fund Wallimage is financing 5 new projects, among them:
- LE FAUX SOIR by Michaël R. Roskam, producer: EAVE graduate Jean-Yves Roubin
- VENUS ELECTRIFICATA by Pierre Salvadori, producer: EAVE graduate Jacques-Henri Bronckart
In production
- A GIRL UNKNOWN by Zou Jing, producer: EAVE graduate and group leader Didar Domehri is in production. The film depicts a young Chinese woman from the age of six through to her thirties, living in three different families. It tells the story of entire generations of abandoned girls in China from the 1980s to the 2000s. It is also an intimate coming-of-age story that explores existential pain, self-discovery, and how one learns to love. In A GIRL UNKNOWN Zou Jing follows through on her thorough investigation of Chinese society. She addresses what remains to this day a sensitive topic in the country: the predicament of girls abandoned by their family. The devastating consequences of the country’s one-child policy, which reached its peak in the 1980s and 1990s, remain a sad reality for countless families. Drawing from her personal experience, Zou Jing offers a reserved portrayal of psychological and emotional scars resulting from such trauma through three distinct chapters of her protagonist’s life. In this realistic, minimalistic film, in which emotions are expressed with utmost restraint, Zou Jing gracefully explores the truths hidden in this chapter of Chinese history.
In post-production
- CALL ME QUEEN by Emily Atef, producer: EAVE graduate Gian-Piero Ringel is in post-production. The production has wrapped filming in Nairobi, Kenya. Adapted from Lara Santoro’s 2007 novel Mercy, the film depicts a friendship between an Irish journalist in Kenya and a Rwandan woman, who pair up to combat the AIDS crisis in the 1990s. Gian-Piero Ringel produces for Germany’s Ringel Film, with David Thion for France’s Les Films Pelleas; and from the UK, Catherine Townsend for Cowboy Films and Alexandra Stone for Streetcar Productions. Co-producers are Paul Zischler, Martin Rehbock and Appie Matere, with executive producers Charles Steel for Cowboy Films and Mo Abudu. Atef describes the film as “a cinematic celebration of empowerment and the strength found in community and collective action. To show the strength that emerges when people come together to challenge the status quo and reclaim their voice, is central to the film - something I believe strongly resonates today,” said Atef.
- HOLD ON TO ME by Myrsini Aristidou, producer: EAVE graduate Konstantina Stavrianou is currently in post-production. It’s summer, and 11-year-old Iris is running wild through the streets with her older friend Danae when she learns her estranged father, Aris, is back in town for his own father’s funeral. Determined to know him, Iris tracks him down to a dilapidated shipyard, where he’s been keeping to himself. What begins as a stubborn attempt to reconnect slowly unfolds into a fragile bond - imperfect, yet poignant. “Hold onto Me is a personal and emotionally layered story about a father and daughter rediscovering each other. The film captures both the beauty and the tension of reconnection, weaving moments of humour, defiance and tenderness through the eyes of 11-year-old Iris. As a Cypriot filmmaker, it was important to me to portray the richness and stillness of everyday life here: the worn-out backdrops, the sense of time standing still, the forgotten colliding with the new, and the raw emotional undercurrents that continue to shape us. At its core, the film is about the fragile beginnings of a bond, one that never quite had the chance to grow, but might still find its shape”, Myrsini Aristidou said. Aristidou’s debut feature is a co-production between Cyprus, Denmark and Greece made in joint participation with the United States. The film was financed through a combination of public funds, institutional support, international grants, and private investment secured between 2018 and 2024. The producers are Monica Nicolaidou, Myrsini Aristidou, Anders N.U Berg, Konstantina Stavrianou and Rena Vougioukalou. Mark Hollinger and Thomas J. Mangan IV (USA) are executive producers. Filmblades (Cyprus) and One Six One Films (Cyprus) are producing the film in co-production with Fredo Pictures (Denmark), Graal S.A (Greece), with the support from the Cyprus Deputy Ministry of Culture, ERT (Greek TV Channel), the Danish Film Institute, the Greek Film Center, the Black Family Grant of NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Pleasant Bay Pictures, the Sam Spiegel International Film Lab - Emerging Filmmaker Award, and Mango Productions. The principal photography took place during the summer and fall of 2023 in Limassol and Nicosia, including the surrounding coastal areas. The completion of the film is expected by the summer of 2025.
Page published 27 May 2025.
